Cover Page

Table of Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Essay

Brief History

Gila River

Granada

Heart Mountain

Jerome

Manzanar

Minidoka

Poston

Rohwer

Topaz

Tule Lake

Isolation Centers

Add'l Facilities

Assembly Centers

DoJ and US Army Facilities

Prisons

References

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites by J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord, and R. Lord

Chapter 10 (continued)
Poston Relocation Center

Poston I

Figure 10.25. Oblique aerial view of the Poston area today.

Most of the countryside around the three units that formed the Poston Relocation Center is covered by irrigated farm fields (Figures 10.25 and 10.26). The most prominent remains at the site today are those of the Poston I elementary school, where the adobe auditorium and nearby school buildings are still standing (Figures 10.27-10.31. At the southwest corner of the auditorium there is a dedication plaque that reads "POSTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL UNIT I — JUNE 1943 ..S IF — BUILT BY THE JAPANESE RESIDENTS OF POSTON." Unfortunately the school buildings are now abandoned and currently in poor condition, and without stabilization will soon be damaged beyond repair.

A small housing area and trailer park is now across the road from the auditorium and school buildings to the west, in what used to be a firebreak containing a swimming pool. Beyond the elementary school all that remains of the evacuee area at Poston I are a few concrete slabs at the site of the high school, now a farm residence.

East of Mohave Road, the former garage area at Poston I is now used as a maintenance yard. A large building, the same location and shape as the machine shop on WRA blueprints, probably dates to the relocation center era (Figure 10.32). Portions of at least four other buildings in the garage area survive as well (Figure 10.33). To the south of the garage area, the staff housing area is marked only by roads lined with large palm trees (Figure 10.34). Although the 1970 USGS map depicts the buildings, all are now gone, and there is a recent housing development on the land just to the south.

The sewage treatment plant for Poston I lies abandoned within farm fields about 3/4 mile west of Mohave Road. It is in good condition and still has a lot of the associated pumps and other equipment not found at the other two Poston sewage treatment plants (Figures 10.35 and 10.36).

Photo Album

Continued

Last Modified: Fri, Sep 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
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